rhymes with spoon

Taking a cue from Amanda, here are ten things I'm loving right now.

1. These measuring cups, first seen here. I often find cutesy kitchen gadgets endearing but I rarely buy them as I've never had a kitchen large enough to accomodate anything other than the basics. Still, I could NOT resist these....too cute.
   
2. The new Sigur Ros album, Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust. (In English, that's "With a buzz in our ears we play endlessly.") I'm psyched to see they'll be playing again in the US this year. I saw them a year or two ago in Minneapolis but can't imagine how much better they'll sound in the insane accoustics of Benaroya Hall. (Also in heavy rotation is the new Mates of State, Re-Arrange Us. Disregard the luke-warm review from Pitchfork. This album is chock full of sugary pop song goodness.)
   
3. The idea of permanent employment, with benefits. (Now if only someone would actually humor me on this one.) Anyone? Anyone?
   
4. The Japanese spitz. Many of you know of my strong allegiance to the Cardigan Welsh Corgi but Jeff has been trying to convince me otherwise. I can't help but smile whenever I see this, this, or this.
   
5. This Japanese craft book (Camisole & One Piece). Totally inspired by Tania at Chocolate a Chuva. In the unlikely event that a ton of free time magically appears, I plan on making every single top from this book. Someday I'll snap a proper picture of the 1st top I made from this book a few weeks ago.



6. Knit cat toys. (Pattern from Stitch n Bitch Nation.) This is about the only crafting I'm getting in these days. I can usually squeeze in one of these on the bus ride home. Stuff them with some catnip and polyfil and you'll have one happy kitty. Jeff's cats just made the cross-country haul (safely) to Seattle and whole-heartedly approve.
   
7. These posters. Keep Calm and Carry On. Words we could all stand to hear once in a while, no? I can gurantee you that one of these will either be up in my office (should I ever get one?) or my next apartment. I know the classic original comes in red but I'm really digging the green one.
   
8. Peonies. Both of the ones I purchased a few weeks ago have bloomed, a very promising sign since they're still potted. My dad had this insane idea to tear up the front and back yards weeks before getting a landscaper in. So right now our front and back yards look like giant piles of dirt but the landscaper isn't coming in until next week. At least the flowers are still alive!
   
9. Every single thing on this blog: beautiful landscapes, children, fabrics, and crafts. She's one talented gal.
   
10. This dress, which I'll be wearing this weekend in glorious South Bend, Indiana. A good friend from college is getting married which provides an excellent excuse to a) catch up with old friends, b) buy a new dress, and c) fly to Chicago.
    

Promise to be back soon....with real crafting next time. I'm suffering from massive burnout (on many fronts) but hope some time away from work will be just the thing to help me get my craft mojo back.

Taking a cue from Karen, I just had to try out this little me me.

The concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Sara
2. What is your favorite food? sushi
3. What high school did you go to? Curtis
4. What is your favorite color? green
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Christian Bale
6. Favorite drink? coffee
7. Dream vacation? Japan
8. Favorite dessert? chocolate
9. What you want to be when you grow up? a lawyer (maybe)
10. What do you love most in life? Freedom
11. One Word to describe you. determined
12. Your flickr name. POOHBA02

Created with fd's Flickr Toys.

Ok so I totally never got to that quilt this weekend but in my defense:
1) We actually got some nice weather and I needed to enjoy that!
2) I crossed off a few more things on my "You can't procrastinate on this any longer" list.
3) I'm looking for a new job which has turned out to be a full-time job in and of itself.
4) I'm much more interested in apparel sewing these days and am bursting with ideas. There just aren't enough hours in the day to execute all of them.
5) I made these shorts for my little sister who has been requesting some for quite some time now. (Requests for hand-made goods always seems way more compelling coming from someone you live with vs. someone you only see ever few weeks/months.) I made the shorts using Butterick 5044 (view A). This is a relatively quick and easy sew although I almost blew a gasket trying to get the plaid to match up right and I have serious issues with marked pocket placements. In the future, I'll skip the plaids and reconsider the pocket placements. Little sister is quite happy with them and has already requested another pair.

What Your Taste in Chocolate Says About You

You are sophisticated, modern, and high class. Your taste is refined, but you are not picky. You are often the first to try something new. You are down to earth and lovable. A true friend, you're very tolerant and understanding. In fact, your friends' biggest problem is that they don't like each other! You love to be the center of attention. You enjoy entertaining your friends. You feel lost when no one is interested in you... You're too interesting to be ignored.

Don't let these bright colors fool you. It may be June but it is COLD and RAINY here in Seattle. It feels like January here! I get home and I want to roll right into bed and sleep forever. Which is why this snappy little quilt has been sitting around unfinished. It's for a good family friend who recently had a baby but I'm hoping she's so busy with her new little one that she forgotten all about the quilt! I still have to quilt the top border of the quilt and finish hand sewing the binding but I think I can finish it this weekend. (At least I hope so!)

Seriously though, I have winter on my mind. I've taken up knitting, although as with everything else in my life right now, it's at a snail's pace. (But I am almost finished with the back!) A while ago I started knitting up a Honeycomb from the latest Knitty. I have some minor misgivings about the pattern but otherwise I absolutely love the texture of the honeycomb stitch and Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool holds up to the stitch so nicely. (The yarn is also marvelously priced. Taking advantage of a nice sale at One Fine Yarn, a project's worth of yarn barely set me back $25.)

This last picture is for Oiyi:
Nothing's better than comfort food in wintery weather and few things comfort me more than a gooey grilled cheese sandwich. I love the rustic nature of boules, baguettes, and batards but I find them better suited to eating plain and simple. This weekend I finally got a non-stick loaf pan over the weekend so that I could have more sandwich friendly bread. I think I'm really getting the hang of this bread baking thing....I didn't quite get the rise I wanted (I'm guessing I should've used more dough) but this loaf had really nice texture. A crunchy exterior and chewy interior. A dream to slice.

Bear with me in the coming weeks if I'm not around much or if I'm not finishing a lot of projects. I'm juggling a lot of things right now and so much is in flux. I'm feeling very discouraged and very burnt out but I'll try not to talk about that much here. (This is after all the place where I blog about all the things that make me happy!)

I can finally show this project. I recently did a swap with Anna. I sent this oven mitt along with another little (purchased) goodie. (You might recognize the fabric from the mixer cover I made recently...I had just enough left for this project.) I took the pattern from Lotta Jansdotter's book and combined it with instructions from Denyse Schmidt's book. It was also my first experience with insulbrite, which does a much better job than regular batting for heat protection, but makes this unfortunate crinkly sound when layered. Next time I may only use one layer of the stuff, as this thing was a complete pain in the *** to stitch and turn. (I was being cautious because I've read elsewhere that one layer doesn't quite cut it.)

Onto some bread...no pictures, just some thoughts on what I've learned from all my recent baking. (Lynn, this is mostly response to your recent post. I started leaving a comment but I just started rambling too much...and I figured maybe some other people out there will find this info helpful too.)

The recipe in the Artisan Bread book uses a good bit of salt. However, I do think there's some room to fiddle around with the amount. That said, I would NOT recommend omitting the salt altogether...just try cutting it in half and play around with it from there. I like to taste my bread so I didn't have problems with the salt content but I've heard a range of opinions on this.

As for the rise issue, here are some things I've figured out after several batches of bread:
1) Make sure to check the yeast brand that you use for water temperatures. I think the necessary water temperature can vary depending on whether you proof the yeast first vs. what you do with the recipes in this book---just dumping everything in together and mixing. (It has been my experience with the particular brand of yeast that I use that I get better results when I use water on the warmer side.)
2) I find that I get a better rise with wetter dough (usually yields larger air pockets)...that means being very careful not to add in too much flour when you portion out the dough. The downside is that it can be much harder to work with.
3) Also, I'm not sure if the measurements for dough portioning in the book are quite accurate. (I've read this on other forums too.) I find that a typical batch of master dough usually yields 3 good size loaves...you may want to experiment.
4) My parents house tends to be cold so I've gotten the best rise out of breads by doing their counter top rise in a slightly warm oven. (We're talking really low.) An alternative is leaving the dough for its initial rise in a car on a warm day. (I know this sounds totally ghetto but I swear it's worked.)
5) Make sure to get a good initial rise before chilling the dough. More often than not, it's taken more than the 2 hours suggested in the book. (This affects the second rise and the taste of the bread.)
6) When in doubt consult the book's errata page.

Those are my initial thoughts. Baking bread (like sewing and knitting) can be a lot of work but there are few things more rewarding than the smell of freshly baked bread.

I've been a busy little bee.
Lots of sewing this weekend although I don't have any pictures to show...it's hard to get pictures of my latest projects since I don't have a photographer and I need to model. In the meantime, I'll distract you with some flowers.

Those of you who've kept up with my blog may know that I have a thing or two for peonies. I think they're the most incredible flowers. Although I come from a long line of farmers, neither of my parents have a green thumb. They live in an amazingly lush green belt area but they've really let their yard run amok. I want so badly to spruce things up but thus far, I've been limiting myself to research. I still have oodles to learn but this is prime planting season people. I really want to get cracking, otherwise I'll have to wait until next summer! Knowing that peony blooms can be short lived, I decided to trek up to the A&D Nursery in Snohomish to check out some peony options. The variety of colors and blooms was a bit overwhelming.
There are so many varieties I had a terrible time deciding. Exercising a little restraint, I only walked away with two plants to start, an avalanche and a red charm. I could've easily walked away with a dozen but I figured I should make sure I can keep one or two alive first. So there you have it. My landscaping revolution, one small potted flower at a time.